


I Left My Washing in the Launderette

by deadhuntress



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Fluff, Laundry, M/M, Strangers, stuck in an elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-11 16:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7059757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadhuntress/pseuds/deadhuntress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: Your laundry got mixed up with mine somehow and now we’re sitting in silence sorting underwear.</p><p>In which a series of accidents bring Dean and Cas together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Left My Washing in the Launderette

Dean couldn’t wait for the day when he had his own house and his own washing machine and dryer. None of this “do your laundry in the creepy basement of the rundown apartment complex you live in” bullshit. The worst part, though, was that there were only three washing machines and three dryers, so it was nearly impossible to find one not being used at any normal hour. Because of this, Dean had taken to doing his laundry at strange times of the day, which explained why he was hurrying downstairs to take his clothes out of the dryer at midnight. To be fair, he had actually put his laundry in at eight but hadn’t had a chance to retrieve it because he’d gone to visit his brother and his wife Jess for the evening.

As he stood in the elevator watching the numbers drop during its descent, he yawned. He would’ve preferred to be in his apartment, perhaps relaxing in front of the TV with a drink and a few episodes of _Dr. Sexy, MD_ , but he’d left his stuff down there long enough and didn’t want to risk someone taking it. When he reached floor 5, the elevator pinged and the doors opened. In stepped a man whom Dean was pretty sure he didn’t know, because surely he would remember seeing someone _that_ gorgeous in the building.

The man greeted him with a nod and Dean hoped he wasn’t blushing as he tried not to stare into his bright blue eyes. Usually it was Dean making other men or women blush, but there was something about this man that threw his usual charm and flirting off.

Dean was surprised to see the guy wasn’t getting off at the ground floor and was instead apparently going to retrieve his laundry as well.

“I didn’t know anyone else did their laundry at midnight,” he joked as the doors slid open at the basement level and the two men stepped out.

“Well, it’s nearly impossible to find an open machine at any other time of day, so midnight it is,” the man said, surprising Dean with a voice much lower than he expected. As if the man wasn’t attractive enough without adding in a deep voice. “At least it’s Saturday so there are no classes tomorrow,” he continued.

Dean frowned. This guy looked to be about his age; why would he still be in college? “Are you in _college_?” Dean blurted out, then realized that sounded really rude. There were many adults who got their degrees after their early twenties, and it certainly wasn’t his place to judge if this man was one of them. He blushed, hoping he hadn’t offended the other man.

Thankfully, though, the blue-eyed man just laughed and said, “No, no, I’m a professor. I teach Anthropology at the local university.”

Dean flushed even harder and apologized, but the man assured him it was fine. “I didn’t phrase that very clearly,” he said. “It was an understandable mistake.”

At this point they reached the machines at the other end of the room and were shivering in the cold basement as they opened the dryer doors. Dean set his laundry basket down and grabbed a handful of clothes from the dryer. He was about to throw them in the basket when he noticed a light gray t-shirt in his hand. His eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. He had washed mostly underwear, and yeah, there were a few t-shirts thrown in, but definitely not a gray one.

“This isn’t mine,” he said, just as the other man said, “Where’s my laundry?”

They looked at each other, and understanding dawned on their faces at the same time.

“Someone must’ve mixed them together,” Dean said, gesturing to the machine in front of them. “Some asshole who thought he could just throw your stuff in with mine and take up two machines.”

The other man groaned. “So what, now we have to sort through it?” he said. “Mine was, um, underwear and a few shirts,” he said, a slight pink hue rising in his cheeks.

“Mine too,” Dean said with a sigh as he looked at the contents of the dryer.

A minute later, they were sitting in awkward silence as they sat on the floor, pulling items out of the dryer and either placing them into their own basket or into the other’s. Some items were a bit more difficult to tell and were placed aside until the end.

“Well, this is awkward,” Dean ventured, breaking the silence.

“Yes it is,” the other guy replied. “These yours?” he asked, holding up a pair of blue and gray plaid boxers.

“Yeah,” Dean said, and the boxers were thrown into his basket. “I’m Dean by the way,” he added.

“Castiel,” the other man responded. “You can call me Cas, though.”

“Castiel,” Dean said slowly, enjoying the way the name rolled off his tongue. “Like the angel?” he questioned.

“Yes, my parents decided to name my siblings and me after angels,” Cas said. “Most people don’t know that,” he added, staring at Dean curiously.

Dean looked down at his laundry and then back into Castiel’s eyes. “My mom used to tell me that angels were watching over me,” he said. “I have some familiarity with them.” Cas looked impressed and Dean grinned on the inside.

They talked and sorted for a minute longer before Dean pulled a pair of bright, pumpkin-orange men’s boxer briefs from the dryer that were definitely _not_ his. “Are these _yours_?” he chortled. Cas’ eyes grew wide as he snatched them away from Dean, blushing furiously.

“Yes,” he muttered. Dean just looked at him, still chuckling. Cas glanced up at him. “They’re not – They were a gift from my brother Gabriel; he’s a bit of a trickster and he thought it’d be a funny joke. I don’t usually wear them, but I was in a hurry one day and they were the first ones I saw.”

“Well,” Dean said. “I guess Halloween _was_ just last week.”

Cas rolled his eyes, but let out a laugh as well, apparently feeling better that Dean wasn’t judging him or teasing him maliciously. “Maybe next year,” he said.

After another minute or two, all of their laundry was sorted into the correct basket. They headed back to the elevator and Dean felt better getting out of the basement. They pressed the buttons for their floors and the elevator started its ascent, but somewhere between floors 2 and 3, there was a creaking sound and then the elevator shuddered to a stop.

This was an old building and the elevator had been known to get stuck before, but until now Dean had always managed to avoid it happening to him. “Are you kidding me?” he heard Cas mutter.

“Looks like we’ll be stuck here a while,” Dean said, knowing from experience that the repair was likely to take a few hours, especially in the middle of the night. He pulled out his phone, thankful that he had grabbed it before coming down, and called the landlord to explain the situation.

“What a great night,” Cas said when Dean had hung up, sounding slightly sarcastic. He had sat down on the elevator floor while Dean was on the phone and was leaning against the back wall.

“Hey, it could be worse,” Dean said with a shrug as he joined Cas on the floor.

“How?” Cas asked.

“Well, you could be stuck with someone you can’t stand. You can stand me, right?” he asked with a flirty smile.

“Yes, Dean, I can stand you,” Cas said, a small smile forming on his lips. “I can think of worse people to be stuck with,” he added casually, nudging Dean’s shoulder with his own.

“And we’ve got plenty of clean underwear, some clean shirts…”

“We won’t be stuck _that_ long!” Cas exclaimed. He paused. “You didn’t happen to wash a blanket, did you?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Dean said, digging around in his basket to find the small blanket that he’d just happened to throw in earlier. “Wanna share?” he asked, and Cas wasted no time in grabbing the other end and wrapping it around himself.

“This floor’s cold,” Cas said when he had laid down.

“Well this _is_ a metal elevator,” Dean said. Cas just peered up at him with those wide blue eyes, and Dean smirked, saying, “I think I have a way to warm you up.”

“Yes?” Cas asked innocently.

Dean lowered himself down next to Cas and pulled the other half of the blanket over himself. He wrapped an arm around Castiel’s stomach and pulled the other man’s back to his chest, asking, “Is this okay?” as he did so.

“Of course,” Cas said, twisting his neck around and gazing into Dean’s eyes for a moment. Dean shivered as Cas got more comfortable, tucking his head into Dean’s neck. It wasn’t long before they were both asleep, curled together more intimately than expected, though neither of them actually cared.

The two of them slept like that for the rest of the night, and it was only when the elevator jolted back into action the next morning that they woke.

At first, Dean couldn’t figure out where he was or what was pressing against his chest, but he soon remembered, just as Cas blinked his eyes open. Dean pressed a gentle kiss to Cas’ hair, and the other man sighed and closed his eyes again, which was good because Dean’s eyes were wide and he couldn’t believe he’d just done that.

Unfortunately, their little romantic moment was summarily interrupted as the elevator doors suddenly opened, revealing a surprised older woman who stared at their prone forms before blushing and saying, “Go on, I’ll just catch the next one.”

That was enough to wake them up, and they quickly got themselves up and looking like they hadn’t just spent all night cuddled on the floor of the elevator.

“I’ll, um, see you?” Dean asked.

“If you want, we can meet downstairs in about twenty minutes and go out for breakfast,” Cas suggested, smiling with the same innocent charm he’d had the night before. “You might want to freshen up though,” he said with a wink as the elevator stopped at his floor and he stepped out, leaving Dean sputtering “Hey!” as he walked down the hall to his apartment.

Twenty minutes later, though, the men walked out of the apartment building and toward the diner on the corner hand in hand and laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Belle & Sebastian song “Blues Are Still Blue.”
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr at [thetideseternaltune](http://thetideseternaltune.tumblr.com/) (main blog) or [hunterangelkisses](http://hunterangelkisses.tumblr.com/) (SPN sideblog)!


End file.
